By TJ DENBLEYKER, JEFFERY CHASE, AND MARISA GARCIA
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The Bartels dining hall has seemed to have fallen under a bad rep, but it certainly was for good reason. Bartels’ problems range the whole spectrum, from the hours they remain open, the food quality and variety itself and even the staff or the lack thereof during the very limited dining hours.
These things could maybe be overlooked if it was not for the absorbent amount of money every student who decides they wish to eat paying to the school for their very inconvenient and seemingly scam-like dining plan.
Bartels is only open during the hours of 7-10AM and 4:30-7:30PM which may seem all fine and dandy, but for those who have class or who have sports and until later into the night, you are forced to use dining dollars which are only to be used occasionally and will not last you the whole semester.
If this was not enough the food served throughout these time spans is almost always lukewarm at best and on mostly on the colder side if not completely cold if you happen to show up during the tail end of the dining hours. The dining hall on paper say they close at 7:30PM which is still relatively early in comparison to most other campuses, but when you arrive at around 7:15, which is still during the allotted dining schedule, then why is the half the food either gone or on its way to being ice cold?
If there was a possible dining hour extension then the students could at least get new warm food until the listed time or possibly a few minutes after instead of all the employees closing exactly on the dot.
In the rare occurrences where the food is served hot, the food itself isn’t what you would expect it to be. The food is often tasteless or has some odd texture that makes it feel like you’re eating something totally different than what you just picked up with your fork. Personally, a few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to have some ham from Bartels. I was initially excited, since I love eating ham. However, when I actually took the first bite, disappointment filled me rather than the sweet taste of ham. There was almost no taste, and I bet there wouldn’t have been if it weren’t for the over excessive amount of salt on it.
Again, on a personal note, I’m a huge fan of salt and using way more than the normal diner would, but that amount of salt was absurd; I think my tongue and cheeks shriveled after taking a bite. Aside from the specials of sheer disappointment, the rest of the food doesn’t look or taste good half the time. If you look at the hamburgers, the whole center of the patty is white; I don’t think that’s very healthy looking. Sometimes the food does look good, but that’s usually just the lighting. Every time I get pasta and the sauce, it always looks so much better in the light where it’s served than the table that I’m eating it at. The same can be said for pretty much any dish that you can get at Bartels.
Another issue that comes up every single night without fail is the lack of dishes and silverware. Almost every night Bartels is serving things on paper plates, or else you will have to get your food in a cereal bowl. Either they don’t do the dishes until the next morning or they simply have a pathetic amount of plates and utensils. They always have a plethora of ice, as they constantly refill the machines with ice about every ten minutes, but don’t fill up the drinks, leaving some of us wanting a soda but getting nothing in return.
With all of these problems, Bartels needs to step up its game. The only reason that so many people still go there is because it’s the most available and the closest option, and we don’t want to pay real money for food. Bartels needs a change, or there will be a noticeable change in daily patrons.
